In 1989, former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes joined a group of investors hoping to develop a bullet train system in Texas. The company, Texas TGV, planned to build a 200 mph line between Dallas and Houston and then expand to Austin and San Antonio. After four years and more than $70 million in investments, the project collapsed.

“It’s the closest any state has come to having a high-speed train,” Barnes said. “I’ll spend the rest of my life asking what if.”

More than two decades later, Texas Central Railway is trying to revive a part of that earlier ...

Comment Policy

The Texas Tribune is pleased to provide the opportunity for you to share
your observations about this story. We encourage lively debate on the issues
of the day, but we ask that you refrain from using profanity or other
offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting
advertising, or wandering away from the topic at hand. To comment, you must
be a registered user of the Tribune, and your user name will be displayed.
Thanks for taking time to offer your thoughts.

Comments (26)

Best of luck, Germany and France: Scary Rick Perry and his goon-squad cannot even keep the state's once Autobahn-effective Interstates free of potholes.

Do you actually believe that the goobers can build a railroad that doesn't send a 300 mph bullet train literally flying to Houston in an unconscious imitation of a 737?

Time to rethink that commitment. Some of us highly suspect many Texans and other United States citizens want to become crash-test dummies so Texas can save a buck. A one-way bullet train from Houston to Dallas would be appreciated, but the high-speed clack-clack-clack is going to sound like a blind man who has stuck his cane out the window to tap-tap-tap his route while pushing 80 down I-30 in a rainstorm in a foreign luxury auto.

House Approves $1 Billion Aid Package For Ukrain ??The House of Representatives cleared a financial aid package for Ukraine on Thursday, heeding the White House's request that Congress respond quickly to Russia's military incursion into Crimea.The same week it denies benefits to Veterans and (R) U.S. of Texas Senator Ted Cruz ($24 billion dollar mistake in 2013 government shutdown) still too wants too Appeal OBAMACARE that doesn't exist,It's Called the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act Law !!! Click on link http://www.gpo.gov/.../BILLS.../pdf/BILLS-111hr3590enr.pdf

Any who are forced to drive on vehicle choked I-35, particularly if going through Austin fully realizes the need for additional mobility options.

Trains work exceptionally well in Europe, particularly for intermediate distances. We need to implement this option along with the best practices in preventive maintenance to insure safe, reliable and timely operations.

The current funding scenario in highways is not sustainable, as our revenues are limited to 20 cents per gallon, an amount insufficient to maintain existing roads, let alone add needed new routes to support the virtually certain rapid increase in Texas population.

Aman Batheja has done an outstanding job on this story, getting to the root of why Texas 20 years ago found a way to once more fail its citizen in favor of protecting its corporatist elite. I know he worked on this story a long time.

It’s also refreshing to see a media outlet so prominently report Southwest Airlines’ and Herb Kellerher’s role in hurting the long term well-being of Texas. To learn of Ann Richards’ and Lloyd Bentsen’s roles is disappointing, but rick Perry’s is totally expected. As this attempt goes forward, I would hope that the other Texas media would keep an eye on those who hurt Texas for corporate gain. (I understand the capitalistic model that promoted Southwest to do this 20 years ago, but we need to address what good corporate citizenship is in the 21st Century at some point.)

As to the basic public policy issue, remember that air and bus travel as well as the trucking industry are heavily subsidized by our taxes. It’s not as visible or direct as the perception we would have of government support of passenger rail. In fact, the entire rail United States network, now dominated by freight carriers, was built with the help of the government in the 19th Century. Read your history and especially about the westward expansion. Using tax dollars to re-grow our rail passenger infrastructure isn’t some foreign construct. It would be as much a fabric of our infrastructure as the highway bridges, tarmac and runways all over the land. I hope these points put aside any “socialism” screeds.

As for the need for a more robust passenger rail policy in the United States, I think we are well past the time for a national discussion about this. that discussion should focus mainly one long-distance trains and the intermediate routes like the one in this story. I would stipulate at the outset my position is rail travel is more efficient and environmentally friendly that air travel, which releases fumes into the upper atmosphere. From that point on, the debate can begin.

Finally, last summer I had the good fortune to travel in England and from London to Paris on the EuroStar. As much as the Brits complain about their rail service, our experience was positive — thoroughly enjoyable. Comfortable, clean and quiet trains run between cities at 125-140 mph. And, these are private rail companies that are part of the National Rail Service, so it, again, isn’t “socialism.” The EuroStar took us between downtown London and downtown Paris in a little more than two hours. I wish we had more time to explore the continent on the various other rail services.

We need passenger rail in the U.S. more than most people realize. It’s a basic guns and butter issue.

The combination of imminent domain, Southwest Airlines and a lingering doubt that it could pay its way without government subsidies killed it in the Legislature and in Texas. The problem is that those three factors still exist.

March 7, 2014 @ 10:02 a.m.

Dormand Long

One of the basics of public transit is that it is rare for operations and capital outlays to be covered by the farebox, thus requiring government subsidies.

The inability to self fund should not be a deal killer, as this is a logical function of government to fund functions beneficial to the public good.

We would not cease funding the military simply because it is not self-funding.

If we wait until absolute gridlock is in place to increase mobility options, it will be far more expensive and difficult to implement due to right of way development.

We need standardization and a national system that connects all the various regional plans to a national grid or "backbone". When you can catch the train in Texas and get to Florida then high speed rail will make money. As things stand now there is a bridge out in Lousiana and you can't take passenger rail from Texas without routing through Washington, DC. That and the rails are very, very rough when you get north in Texas.

The high point for the proposal that last time was when Barnes, as a lobbyist, tried to slip authority for the High Speed Rail Commission to issue bonds for the project into a Senate committee substitute for the transportation bill in the summer special session of 1991. He got caught and that was the end of that.

March 7, 2014 @ 11:57 a.m.

connie swinney

Who are the geniuses who keep trying to bring the bullet train boondoggle to Texas? There is no demographic for it. Middle class people prefer traveling in the comfort of their own giant SUVs. There are little to no taxi cabs, so no mass crowds without vehicles looking for alternative modes of transportation. Texas highway views are ugly, so no tourist wants to stare for hours into a drought-ridden abyss without a pit stop. Low-income people wouldn't be able to afford the train. Wealthy people prefer plane travel. Why don't you shoot this bullet train idea over to the northeast where you can drive through 5 states in five hours. Let their 'investors' fund your proposed gravy train.

Seems that something could be done quickly between San Antonio and Austin if it was like what connects Dallas and Fort Worth , Actually with the right regulations the rail trip to Fort Worth could be improved. NOt a super train but not bad commuter.

It wasn't just Southwest Airlines which took the lead and publicly fought against that 1980s HSR project -- less overt but equally concerted actions made behind the scenes by the then-named State Department of Highways and Public Transportation (which still retained its massive legacy workforce that was later radically downsized and its functions outsourced in the 1990s) was intent on sustaining its core highway-focused construction and maintenance missions and equally instrumental in undermining the concept of any competing rail network to serve the "Texas Triangle".

March 7, 2014 @ 2:59 p.m.

E. Quote

Old technology, why should Texas spend big bucks on an obsolete transportation system? A better 'land transportation' system is needed, it should not be affected by weather, be as fast, point to point, as air travel, with more comfort and safety. I don't think high speed rail meets the specs.

March 7, 2014 @ 4:41 p.m.

Tucano Fulano

The California "Choo-Choo" is broke and broken because of politicians' graft corruption and greed. It's known as a "Boondoogle" because that's what it is. Don't do that in Texas!

For those opposing public expenditures for mass transit which they will never personally use, a more enlightened view is that with the status quo, at some point I-35 will be gridlocked at many points, particularly in Austin.

Those who will always travel in their Suburban on highways will find that the more of the population who are whisked to their destination via mass transit, the better the flow for the single occupant Suburbans out on the highways.

March 8, 2014 @ 12:32 p.m.

nat newel

This is the same train which is getting a government bailout as the Texas Tea Party Patriots and Texas taxpayers are picking up the tab so the TXDOT can complete the environmental studies for the train. Thanks Texas taxpayers for your funding and support of the Texas High Speed Rail Project! Please keep the tax payer dollars flowing;-)

California, leaps and bounds ahead of the competition: "CHSRA requires operation at speeds of a minimum of 200 mph (324 kph), similar to what Amtrak expects it will need to realize its “Vision for High-Speed Rail” on the NEC. CHSRA is seeking an initial order of 15 trainsets with a minimum of 450 seats that can meet its planned trip-time requirements for service from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles on what is planned as mostly new infrastructure."

Amtrak is seeking up to 28 high speed trainsets, each with between 400 and 450 seats, that can meet or exceed current Acela Express trip-times on the existing NEC infrastructure between Washington, New York, and Boston. Only current manufacturers of high speed rail equipment, which Amtrak and CHSRA define as “manufacturers with equipment in commercial operation at high speeds for at least two years,” will be eligible to submit a bid. Proposals are due May 17, 2014. A builder is expected to be selected by year-end 2014.